The 12 Days of Christmas
by DustfingerandXion
Summary: 12 drabbles in which Arthur and Merlin spend christmas together. SLASH. Merlin/Arthur. This series assumes that Arthur and Merlin are already together. AU, modern-day style.
1. The First Day

**This is the first part of a Christmas series that I have going for Merlin/Arthur. I'm planning on 12 parts, with one each day starting from the 12th of December.**

**Unfortunately for me, I do not own Merlin or Arthur, or any other characters from the Merlin series. They are all property of the BBC. **

**This series assumes that Merlin and Arthur are already a couple, and living in Arthur's house. It's definitely AU.**

**Reviews would be fantastic. c:**

* * *

_On the first day of christmas, my true love sent to me, a truly massive christmas tree._

_*****_

Arthur was at a loss of what to say. There were just no words that could cover what he was thinking. Well, almost no words.

"It's… really big."

"Isn't it amazing?" Arthur watched with an eyebrow raised, as Merlin threw his arms around the abnormally large Christmas tree, a look of complete adoration plastered across his face.

"Is it going to fit through the door?"

Merlin's face fell. "Well, I figured we could just…" He trailed off, frowning as Arthur let his face fall into his face.

"Only you could not think about whether it would fit!"

"Well, we could just keep it outside?" Merlin looked hopeful, his arms tightly wrapped around the tree. His fingers only just brushed each other. "Please?"

"But… it's so big!"

"Please? For me?" Arthur had no idea how just a single look could have him slowly melting into compliant goo. After a few moments of hesitation, he caved to the puppy dog eyes Merlin had perfected over the years and sighed, gesturing towards the house.

"I swear, if that thing breaks my door, you will very quickly find yourself staying outside, with the remains of your shredded tree."

"Thank you, Arthur! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Merlin flung his arms around Arthur's neck, almost knocking him over in his excitement.

"I refuse to decorate that monstrosity."

*****

"But, green and silver would just _look _better!" Merlin whined, thrusting a box of silver baubles in Arthur's face. "Red and gold is just so… so…"

"Much better?" Arthur prompted, gently pushing the box away. Leaning casually in the doorway, he wondered if his living room was actually still there under the mountains of decorations Merlin had pulled from… somewhere.

"Frumpy!"

"Frumpy?!" Arthur scoffed, stepping completely into the room. He narrowly missed crushing a small shiny bauble under his foot. Carefully, he picked the red bauble up and waved it at Merlin. "How in the hell is this frumpy?"

Avoiding the question, Merlin shrugged and began lovingly placing green baubles on the tree. "Yes, frumpy. Besides," He unwound the silver tinsel from around his neck and set to draping it about the tree. "I clearly remember you saying, 'I refuse to decorate that monstrosity'". Merlin shook his head and gently patted the side of the tree, as if to comfort it from Arthur's harsh words.

"I may have, but this is _my _house! So technically, I make the final decision."

"Just this once?"

"No! I am not falling for that again!" Arthur turned away from Merlin's intense gaze, refusing to be tempted by the puppy dog eyes. "How about a compromise?"

"A compromise?" Merlin asked, his voice laced with suspicion. He paused in his decorating for a moment, peering around the tree at Arthur.

"Yes, Merlin, a compromise."

"What did you have in mind?"

"For starters, you remove those atrocious green _things_, and then we replace them with red and silver."

"Why not green?" Merlin looked hurt. "I like green." He hugged the box of green baubles tightly to his chest.

"I'm sure you do, but Merlin, have a little common sense. The tree is green."

"So?"

"You can't see them."

"That may be so, but red looks so aggressive."

Arthur slapped a hand to his forehead, and spoke through his fingers. "What am I going to do with you, Merlin?"

"Let me have the green baubles?" He prompted, his face hopeful.

"No."

*****

Twenty minutes, and many games of rock-paper-scissors later, Merlin was feeling triumphant. "Green and silver it is!" Quietly humming a Christmas carol under his breath, he continued to arrange the baubles and tinsel about the tree.

"But Merlin-"

"Nuh-uh! I won fair and square!" Merlin tssked. "Where's the star, Arthur?"

"In the big box. No, not that one. The _other _big box." He grumbled, dropping down onto the sofa. He never lost rock-paper-scissors. _Never. _He watched as Merlin rummaged through the contents of the box, tossing red and gold decorations over his shoulder as he went. "Careful!"

"Aha!" Merlin held up the star, his look of triumph slowly slipping to disappointment. "It's gold!"

Arthur snorted, placing his elbow on the arm of the sofa, and resting his chin in his palm. "What a shame."

"Oh, shh." Merlin looked at the star, to the tree, and back to the star. "Arthur…"

"What now?"

"Will you give me a piggy-back?"

Arthur stared at him in disbelief. "Why?"

"So I can put the star on the tree." Merlin explained, as if Arthur were stupid.

"Really? Are you deliberately trying to hurt yourself?" He ignored Merlin's hurt expression. "Or more importantly, are you trying to hurt _me_?" Arthur sighed and pushed himself out of his seat. "I'll go get the stepladder.

Maybe Arthur wasn't thinking straight, or his judgment was clouded by his frustration at losing Rock-paper-scissors, but whatever the reason was, it probably wasn't his best idea to set up the rickety stepladder, climb up half way, then ask Merlin of all people, to hold it steady while he put the star on the top.

"For Goodness' sake, Merlin! Hold it still!"

"I am!" He cried, as the stepladder gave a disagreeing lurch to the side. It shook Arthur off balance, and he struggled for a moment to right himself. With an undignified cry, Arthur tumbled from the stepladder, somehow managing to throw the stupid star on the tree, just before he hurtled to the floor.

As he lay there for several seconds, waiting for Merlin to come rushing over, apologizing profusely and worrying over his health, he frowned. There was no worried Merlin, and definitely not apologizing. Instead, as he hauled himself onto his elbows, he found Merlin staring at the tree, hands on hips, head tilted to the side, looking concerned.

"Arthur, it's wonky."

Arthur let himself fall back down, letting out a groan of frustration. It was going to be a long Christmas.

*****

Are you coming to bed, Arthur?" Merlin asked, clearing away the collection of mugs and plates that had gathered. As he left for the kitchen, he sent a loving glance toward the Christmas tree stood proudly in the corner. Much to Merlin's surprise, Arthur hadn't complained at all about it during the day.

"Mm, later." He replied, tearing his eyes away from the TV to let Merlin kiss him goodnight.

"Alright."

As soon as he was sure that Merlin was safely upstairs and crashing around in the bathroom, Arthur leapt into action.

*****

Merlin yawned, stomping down the stairs. "Coffee, Arthur?" He took the sleepy grunt as a yes. Grabbing the post on his way through, Merlin rubbed at his eye absently and flicked through it. A Christmas card from his mother, some junk mail, and what he assumed was a bill. As he wandered into the living room, he froze, staring at the Christmas tree. The very _red and gold _Christmas tree.

"Arthur!"


	2. The Second Day

**The second installment of the 12 Days of Christmas series!**

**Feedback has been great, thanks guys! And thanks to those who added the story to their watch list!**

**I still don't own the Merlin series, or any of the characters involved, they all belong to the BBC.**

**With thanks to my friend Xion for this fantastic prompt. I had fun writing it!**

* * *

_On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, lots of unhappy children._

*****

Arthur scowled at his reflection, scowling in disgust. "It makes me look fat." He said simply.

"It's meant to." Lancelot flattened down Arthur's hat, before stepping back to admire his handiwork. "It suits you." Arthur ignored him.

"Do you have any idea how many hours I have spent at the gym to achieve my figure?"

"Clearly it's not working." Arthur turned to scowl at Merlin as he walked into Lancelot's hallway. "I told you that you eat too much junk food."

"Shut up." Lancelot cleared his throat, in an attempt to halt the bickering before it started. It didn't work. "You told me to do this in the first place," Arthur continued, lifting his arms out to the side. He quickly put them down again when he realized it made him look fatter. "You practically _forced _me to agree."

"You're a big boy now, Arthur, I think you know how to say no."

"Oh shut up, Merlin!" He shot him an angry glare in the reflection of the mirror, to which Merlin merely stuck out his tongue.

"_Ahem!_" Two heads snapped around to stare at Lancelot. "Don't look at me like that!" He huffed as they both raised an eyebrow in his direction. "If you keep bickering like an old married couple, you're going to be late. Come on, Arthur." Pushing a very reluctant Arthur out the door, Lancelot called back to Merlin, "Grab his beard, would you?"

"Beard?! You leave it where it is, Merlin!"

Grinning like an idiot, Merlin grabbed the fluffy, white beard off the table and ran after them both.

*****

"All of them? You made _all _of them cry?" Merlin stared at Arthur, trying desperately to hold back his laughter. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! I did exactly as Lancelot told me to. Besides, not _all _of them cried." Arthur stood in front of his mirror, and angrily wrenched the red hat off his head. "Santa Claus is over-rated. And," He continued, glaring meaningfully at Merlin's reflection. "Children are too sensitive."

"Maybe you're just mean."

"I am not mean!" Arthur scoffed, beginning to unbutton his jacket and pull out the two pillows Lancelot had wedged around his middle. He threw one at Merlin, who quickly ducked. It crashed into Arthur's bedside table, knocking the lamp clean off. "It was all Lancelot's fault."

"Laying the blame now, are we?"

"He didn't put enough presents in the damn bag, so when I got to the bottom, there was one child left. They started to cry, and the other's followed suit." He threw up his arms in exasperation.

"You should've made something up. Like… it was only missing because the elves were still working on it because it was so big. He shrugged, lay back on the bed, and linked his fingers together behind his head. He let out an involuntary squawk as Arthur dropped the entire costume on his face.

"Next year, when Lancelot asks," Arthur flopped down next to him. "You can do it."


	3. The Third Day

**The third installment! Yaay! Which is great, but it also sucks as this is the last one of my reserves, so I have to write one every day now. Ahh!**

**Unfortunately, I still do not own anything to do with Merlin. It is all property of the BBC.**

**I also do not own the two films mentioned, they are both property of the respective companies.**

**Reviews would be fantastic. c:**

* * *

_On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, fantastic Christmas movies._

*****

"You've got to be joking. There is no way in hell that I am putting that on my TV!"

"But, _Arthur-_"

"We are not watching it!" He paused, and grabbed the DVD off Merlin, peering at the front. "What is this anyway?" He snorted, looking disgusted. "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas? No. We are not watching this. Can't you just pick something decent? Something over a PG?"

Merlin huffed, snatching the DVD back off Arthur. "Have you ever even watched it?"

"No. And I don't plan to." He folded his arms, leaning on the end of the aisle of DVDs. The rental store was surprisingly empty, what with it being late afternoon on a Saturday. It was for this reason that the assistant was loitering annoyingly close, tidying the same row of DVDs over and over again, waiting for his chance to leap into the conversation and finally make a sale. "Come on, Merlin, just pick something else? Please?"

"But you said I could pick anything I wanted." Merlin looked smug and waved the DVD case in Arthur's face. "So I pick this."

"I said you could pick anything, yes, but I said _within reason._"

"This is within reason. It's not as if it's the end of the world if the Mighty Manly Arthur watches a film rated U, now is it?"

"I still say no." Arthur shrugged, ignoring Merlin's completely unimpressed expression. He couldn't help but smile when Merlin gave up being tactful, instead choosing to simply whinge.

"But I watch it _every year_."

"Since when?" Arthur frowned. He couldn't remember Merlin ever mentioning it.

"Since _ever!"_

"You didn't watch it last year," He pointed out. "And I remember that because we were at your Mum's for most of the holiday."

"Well…" Merlin looked sheepish, fidgeting about, staring at his feet. "Do you remember when my Mum asked you to clear the drive of snow for her?"

Arthur remembered. He'd found it slightly amusing that Hunith had asked him, rather than trust her own son with the shovel. "Yes. What has that go to do with it?"

"I, er, watched it then."

"You _what?_ You were _watching a film _while I was slaving away outside in the freezing cold?!" He could clearly remember the unpleasant feeling of frozen fingers and toes, and the horrid image of himself afterwards; deathly pale, but with an extremely red nose. Hunith's drive was unfairly long. "I really don't want to watch it now."

"I'll make dinner for you?" Merlin clearly hadn't had much experience in the field of bribing, if this was anything to go by.

"Is that supposed to be an incentive?" He chuckled, shaking his head. "Do you not remember the last time you cooked for me?" Unfortunately for Merlin, Arthur remembered exactly what had happened. Not only had he set off the fire alarm twice, and burnt the macaroni beyond recognition, he hadn't even used the oven – Arthur hadn't trusted him with it, and for good reason it would seem. Even microwave food had ended in disaster.

"I remember." Merlin scowled. "I'll order in? And pay?"

"Hmm…" Arthur pretended to hesitate, weighing up his options. He shrugged and opened his mouth to answer, lips pulled down in a mock frown.

"I'll even wash up? And buy ice-cream?"

"You want to watch this film so badly you'd willingly wash up?" Merlin nodded quickly. Usually, he tried to palm off the dishes to Arthur by either plugging his earphones in so that he couldn't hear when Arthur asked, or very quickly deciding after dinner would be a wonderful time to call his mother. "Wow. This is… very unlike you."

"So we can watch it?"

"Yes." Merlin grinned widely and went to fling his arms around Arthur in thanks. He stopped abruptly when Arthur held his hand up quickly. "But next week, we watch what I want."

"Okay!" As soon as Merlin pulled away, the persistent assistant leapt in, grinning and holding his hand out for the DVD.

*****

Arthur gratefully took the mug of hot chocolate Merlin handed to him, holding it out of the way as Merlin snuggled back into his previous position, his back to Arthur's chest. "So," He took a sip of the hot chocolate, careful not to scald his tongue. "What is this film about anyway?"

Fiddling with the remote and attempting to make it do what he wanted it to do, Merlin looked up at him. "Christmas cheer and selflessness."

"Oh, I can't wait." Arthur reached around Merlin and carefully took the remote from him, before he could destroy it. "Bashing it against your leg isn't going to make it work." He said, simply pressing the play button. He let out a small sigh as the screen jumped into life and the overly-happy Christmas music began to play.

*****

Arthur couldn't help it. He couldn't help the fact that a smile crept onto his face every time some character did something nice, and he couldn't help the fact that he was just as devastated as Minnie when she realized Mickey had swapped his harmonica for a watch strap for her. Much to his horror, he was enjoying himself. And while he tried to force the smile off his face, and push away the empathy, Merlin noticed. He didn't mention anything until the credits had begun to roll, and Arthur had let his head fall back onto the sofa in relief.

"Clearly it was not as bad as you thought it would be, hmm?"

Arthur cursed silently, feigning disbelief. "I don't know what you mean, he scoffed, thinking frantically for something to change the subject to. "It was atrociously bad."

"Uh-huh. So that was why you were grinning like an idiot when Donald made a fool of himself, and when Mickey and Minnie had a wonderful Christmas?"

"I…" He floundered for a witty response, hesitating before replying with a weak, "I was not."

"Oh you so were!" Grinning from ear to ear, Merlin turned to look at him. "You actually enjoyed it? Wow. I had hoped you wouldn't completely hate it, but you actually _liked _it?"

Arthur scowled and folded his arms. "I did not."

"Did."

"Did _not_."

"You did! You did!"

"Oh, go wash up!" Arthur shoved him off the sofa, expecting him to protest loudly. Instead, much to Arthur's shock, Merlin merely stood up, gathered their mugs and wandered into the kitchen, chuckling quietly to himself.

"Next week, Merlin," Arthur called over his shoulder, desperately ejecting the disc. "We're watching The Shining." He smiled as Merlin unceremoniously dropped the mug he had been holding onto the floor. Suddenly, Arthur couldn't wait for the next Saturday.


	4. The Fourth Day

**Hooray for the fourth installment! I really thought this wasn't going to get finished today... ^^'**

**I'm just looking forward to my day off from exams tomorrow, so I've got plenty of time to write the next parts!**

**I still don't own any part of the Merlin series, because it still belongs to the BBC.**

**Reviews would be fantastic, and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, embarrassing relatives._

*****

Merlin was worried. Arthur had tried to convince him that it was nothing to get in a flap about; it was only one day. Not even a full 24 hours. Maybe not even 12 hours. But it wasn't the length of time that Merlin was worried about; it was what could happen in that length of time. Merlin was about to go through every boyfriend's worst nightmare.

Arthur's family was coming over.

Not only was Arthur's family coming over (Which was bad enough as it was), but Merlin's family was coming over too. At the same time. This was the bit that had Merlin worrying. Well, not really worrying. More panicking.

****

"You've met my father before though, Merlin. Surely that makes it less of a big deal?" Arthur had been banned from the living room as Merlin hoovered, and was instead standing in the kitchen doorway, shouting over the noise of the machine.

"No it does not make it less of a big deal! We met in a coffee shop, which he chose, if you remember, and I barely had to talk to him; just answer a few simple questions that left very little room for him to think I had some kind of mental affliction. But this time, he is coming to _our house_, with the rest of your family, and _my _family, which I highly doubt is going to go very well. So, this is definitely not less of a big deal! This is a very big deal. Bordering on colossal." Merlin finished, taking several deep breaths before hovering the same piece of carpet he had hoovered twice already.

"Merlin. Merlin!" Arthur cried, trying, but failing, to catch his attention. As Merlin continued to not hear him, Arthur sighed, before stepping forward and wrenching the plug out of the socket. The noise of the vacuum fizzled out with a whine.

"Arthur! What are you doing? I need to hoover!"

"You already hoovered that spot. _Twice. _Now look, stop worrying so much, it'll all be fine. You said Gwen was bringing the food, Morgana was bringing the alcohol, and that Lancelot said he would be on drunk-relative-patrol, thus limiting the amount of embaressing events involving grandparents to almost zero." He carefully took the vacuum from Merlin's hands. "Look at me," He grasped Merlin's shoulders tightly, looking him straight in the eye. "It will be fine." Merlin was surprisingly compliant as Arthur pulled him in for a hug. "So there's nothing to worry about."

*****

Halfway through the evening, Arthur realized that Merlin had every right to be as worried as he had been. Lancelot had had to pull out at the last minute, leaving Arthur to run around madly, politely taking away glasses of whiskey and wine from those older relatives when they looked a bit red in the face; his father seemed even more miserable than usual, and now had cornered a terrified Merlin, proceeding to interrogate him about every single detail of his entire life; Morgana's latest boyfriend, who's name Arthur couldn't remember for the life of him, had almost knocked over the Christmas tree in his drunken stupour, causing Merlin to very suddenly shout "No!" in Uther's extremely unimpressed face, as Hunith leapt forward to set the poor tree on it's feet again. Family gatherings, Arthur decided, were exhausting.

Arthur let out a long sigh as he poured himself another beer. Staring at the build up of white froth on the surface, Arthur took a long gulp.

"So, what is it you do, Arthur? Merlin tells me you're a lawyer?" Arthur jumped, almost spilling his entire glass down his front. Merlin's uncle merely looked amused.

"Ah. Um, yes. I'm a lawyer, yes." Arthur nodded fervently, trying desperately to remember the man's name.

"Edwin." He supplied helpfully. Arthur shook the offered hand, trying to understand why Edwin still looked extremely amused.

"Nice you meet you, Edwin."

"And you. So, what sector do you specialize in? I wanted to be a lawyer, back in the day, just didn't get the grades…"

"It did take an awful lot of hard work… And I specialize in the public sector, as a trainee barrister." Arthur was surprised to find it very easy to talk to Merlin's uncle, despite the constant off-putting expression on his face. After fifteen minutes of political discussions, and other manly important things, Merlin appeared at Arthur's elbow. Strangely, he too looked very amused.

"Uncle Edwin! How's the trombone going? Do you mind if I borrow Arthur for a moment?"

"Merlin, my boy! The trombone is going swimmingly, although your aunt might say differently!" He laughed to himself for a moment, before waving the two away. At this, Merlin pulled Arthur into the kitchen.

"We're out of beer. Don't suppose you could go and get some, could you?" Merlin's face was abnormally straight as he tried very hard to hold in his laughter."

"Not until you tell me what's so damn funny! Edwin seemed to find looking at me very amusing as well…" Arthur folded his arms, glaring at Merlin. It was at times like this that you could very clearly see that Uther was his father.

"You, err-" Merlin snorted, and waved his fingers absently over his upper lip. Arthur frowned and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he pulled his hand away to look at it, his face fell. A line of beer froth was sat very smugly on his index finger.

"I had this… on my lip. For the _entire time_?!"

"Er, yes." Seeing Arthur's expression twist from devastated to extremely agitated, Merlin chose to take his leave. "Don't forget the beer!"

*****

Merlin let out yet another sigh, staring glumly at Arthur's once immaculate living room. "Remind me again why we can't do this tomorrow morning?"

Arthur turned to him, arms full of empty beer bottles. "Because tomorrow you'll just wake up with a hangover and then it'll never get done." He shrugged and attempted to open the front door. Failing, he turned to Merlin, who happily abandoned his half-full bin bag to open it for him. "And besides," Arthur called from the garage, attempting to carefully place the bottles down, without actually being able to see what he was doing. "You were the one who wanted this party in the first place, so you can't complain about the clearing up."

Merlin merely grumbled, leaning against the doorframe. He could faintly see Arthur's outline as he struggled to right the several bottles he had just knocked over. It didn't seem to be going very well, however, as Merlin could hear more bottles being knocked over, and Arthur getting more and more irate.

"Need a hand?"

"I need a light!" Merlin snorted, as Arthur continued. "Why do we not have a light out here?"

"Because you haven't put one up?"

Arthur strode back into view, after loudly shutting the garage door. "Don't just stand there," he scolded. "Or would you like to be up until the early hours of the morning cleaning?"

"Arthur, it _is _the early hours of the morning…" Arthur stopped halfway through the doorway, blinking quickly for several moments. Merlin shrugged. "You were quite happy staying up until the early hours of the morning when you were on that stupid playstation game, keeping me awake! What was it? Call of Duty?"

"Well, you gave it to me!"

"No I didn't! You stole it before I got a chance to give it to you!" Arthur looked sheepish as he stepped into the hallway. "What am I supposed to give you for Christmas now?" He huffed, closing the door. "So quit you moaning."

"Yes, sir."

"Shut up, Arthur."


	5. The Fifth Day

**This one is very much inspired by the fact that my area (FINALLY) have been forecast snow at the end of the week. We got about two flakes today! 8D**

**I still don't own anything to do with Merlin, it all still belongs to the BBC.**

**Just to clear things up for you all: Arthur is a lawyer (as mentioned in the previous section), and Merlin is a vet.**

**Enjoy! c:**

* * *

_On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, an excess of mince pies._

*****

Arthur was used to snow. Having grown up in what he affectionately called "the middle of bloody nowhere", just down the road from where he lived now, snow was not new to him. As he was growing up, he would help his father clear their driveway of the stuff, and at least one school day every year was cancelled because the roads were too dangerous to drive on. Over the years, without him noticing, Arthur had begun to find snow rather boring.

Merlin, however, was in no way familiar with snow. Unlike Arthur, Merlin had grown up in the suburbs of London, in a penthouse flat, and the closest thing to snow he had ever experienced was an extremely thick frost. Although it was the same colour, frost was no nearly as fun as snow.

This was the reason why Merlin had dropped his spoon one morning, splattering cereal and milk all over the counter when the weather lady had warned people in their area of the risk of heavy snow over the coming week.

While Merlin very quickly turned the volume up on the TV so he could hear every word he was being told about the predicted weather, Arthur let out a quiet groan. "The roads are going to be chaos," He tutted, checking his watch. "No doubt I'll be late."

"Do you really think it's going to snow?" Merlin turned to look at him expectantly, scooping a spoon of cereal into his mouth and crunching loudly.

"Oh, probably." He huffed. After buttoning his suit jacket, Arthur attempted to shrug on his overcoat, and finish his coffee at the same time. "Have you seen my scarf? The red one?"

Merlin jabbed his spoon towards the front door. "On the hook. Where it always is." Placing his bowl into the sink, he frowned at Arthur. "Why so glum? Snow is a good thing! I'd love a white Christmas…" He trailed off, staring off into the distance, a dreamy look crossing his face.

"I'm sure you would, but getting to the city and back everyday is slow enough as it is, snow will just make it even more difficult."

"But think of how pretty it would be! The trees covered in snow; the garden untouched when we wake up… Mind you, I don't look forward to digging my car out every morning."

"Exactly. Snow merely causes problems." Merlin opened his mouth to argue, but he was interrupted by his pager. "Trouble on the Ark?" Arthur smirked, attempting to tie his shoelace without looking.

"For goodness sake, Arthur, it's an _Animal Hospital, _not Noah's Ark!"

"Whatever, Doctor Dolittle." He straightened up and grabbed his briefcase. "Now, some of us have to go to work."

"See you later." After a brief kiss goodbye, Arthur left to go and de-frost his car.

"Doctor Dolittle…" Merlin grumbled, grabbing his keys. "Is that the best he can come up with?"

*****

As Arthur had predicted, the roads had been chaos. It seemed that everyone had abandoned what they were doing, and decided to drive to their holiday destination before the snow set in and made them late to Christmas dinner at the grandmother's, or wherever the hell else they were going. They may not be late then, but Arthur was late _now_. His phone bleeped insistently every few seconds, telling him he head received a text message. He noticed they were getting more and more irate, as his colleague got more and more impatient.

His phone bleeped loudly, before falling silent. Momentarily confused, Arthur jammed his phone into the hands-free dock, and opened the message.

_Too l8. U missed the demonstration. U'll have 2 w8 4 the nxt batch of cases. Gutted :P -Owain._

Arthur let out a growl of frustration, bashing his fists against the steering wheel. Today didn't look good.

*****

Merlin was having a wonderful day, unlike Arthur. It had been a slow morning, which allowed him to catch up on the paper work between appointments; one of the veterinary nurses had brought in a ridiculously large amount of mince pies, and it seemed everyone was as excited as him about the forecasted weather. So over lunch, in good cheer now he was armed with a plate of pies and a steaming mug of tea, he chose to ring Arthur, to see how his day was going. As soon as Arthur answered the phone, Merlin knew Arthur's day had been rubbish.

"_What?" _

"Well that's a lovely way to greet your boyfriend." Merlin put his feet up on his desk, sucking the excess icing sugar off his thumb. "I'm guessing your day hasn't been that great? How was the traffic?"

"_Bloody awful. I got here an hour ago."_

Merlin frowned. "But it's _lunchtime. _Did you get a good case?"

"_No. By the time I'd got here, all the cases had gone. I'm stuck on admin until the next lot comes in." _Merlin guessed Arthur had just attempted to gesture at the large pile of paperwork, but in his anger, had instead knocked it all off the desk, if the quiet _whoosh _and the loud cursing was anything to go by. _"How's your day been?"_

"Pretty good actually. Freya brought in mince pies!"

"_Save one for me?" _Merlin paused before answering, as he faintly heard Arthur mumbling to someone else. The someone-else replied sharply, to which Arthur sighed. _"I've gotta go. Speak to you later, yeah?"_

"Yep. Try not to work too hard."

"_I'll give it a go." _He listened as Arthur rummaged around for something, before he added, _"Love you."_

"You too." Maneuvering around his feet, Merlin chucked his mobile onto his desk and attempted to reach for his mug of tea before he went back to paperwork. He was very close to being able to grab it, when there was a knock at the door. "Doctor Emrys?"

"Come on in." Merlin smiled as Freya popped her around the door, tray of pies clutched in her hands.

"Would you like another pie?"

"Oh, go on then." Merlin smiled. Paperwork could wait, he decided.

*****

Maybe putting off paperwork for the entire afternoon wasn't such a good idea after all. Merlin glanced at the clock and sighed. At quarter to seven, it was pitch black outside, and Arthur's desk lamp wasn't doing a very good job of allowing him to see what he was doing. He glared at the unfairly large amount of forms and appointment notes he had carefully sprawled across the desk.

Sighing, he leant back in his chair. He had previously told himself that he would not get distracted, and would have it all done by the time Arthur had gotten home. And considering the fact that Arthur was an hour late, the amount of work Merlin had actually completed was pretty dismal.

Bored out of his mind, Merlin chose to slowly spin around the chair, and watch the room turn as he went around. As he took a close look at Arthur's "office", he frowned. How long had the walls been such a horrid beige colour? He'd never noticed it before, but now that he had, he couldn't _un_-notice it. His nose wrinkled in distaste. A few spins later, he picked up on the sound of Arthur pulling up on the drive.

"Merlin? I'm home." Arthur called. Dropping his briefcase with a thump, he pulled off his scarf and coat, shaking them both out. Merlin frowned. Why on earth would he need to shake them out? It wasn't raining.

"Come here, would you Merlin? I've got something important to show you."

Merlin paused for a moment. Curious, he wandered into the hallway, to find Arthur very hurriedly fluffing up his hair, very much like he would do if he had been rained on.

"Now, close your eyes. Go on. Close them. _Stop peeking!_" Arthur huffed, and Merlin frowned as he heard him opening the front door. He stepped forward cautiously after Arthur's gentle encouragement, and stood with his toes pressed against the lip of the doorframe.

"Can I open my eyes? It's _cold._"

"Be patient; you won't be disappointed." He slipped his arms around Merlin's waist, leaning his chin on his shoulder. "Now you can."

Merlin slowly opened his eyes, feeling suspicious. He was shocked to find that Arthur had been right – he was anything but disappointed. His face lit up with a large grin as he took in the sight before him. The entire front garden, his car, the garage roof, and their drive were completely covered in several centimeters of snow.

Arthur smiled against his neck. "Merry Christmas, love."


	6. The Sixth Day

**Phew, finally! I apologise for how late this is, but today's been pretty hectic. xD **

**I still don't own anything to do with the Merlin series, as it all belongs to the BBC. I also don't own any songs mentioned in here, they all belong to the respective artists. c:**

**Reviews are love. (:**

* * *

_On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, public humiliation._

*****

Arthur really had no problem with carols. Some of them he liked. No, it was not the songs, but the damn people who insisted on bothering him and wasting his time _every year_. It also irked him that once they had finished their horridly out of tune, make-your-ears-bleed performance, they expected him to give them _money_. For a performance that bad? No way. Arthur's money was staying safely in his wallet, thank you very much.

Despite Arthur's constant grumbling about how carolers "weren't as good as they used to be", and how it was all a con, whenever he managed to get to the door before Arthur, Merlin would happily listen to their rendition of the songs, then give them something nice and loving, like a mince pie. It was always very clear that they had hoped for money, but anything was better than a door to the face.

As the doorbell rang one evening, Arthur scowled at the front door. "Merlin, can you get it?" Despite being practically in front of the door as he wandered through the hallway, Arthur really didn't have the patience today.

"'M 'ushing my teef!" Arthur continued to scowl as he wrenched open the front door. Surprised at the sudden appearance, the carolers hesitated before launching into a very loud, very _bad _version of "We three kings".

"We three kings of nuh nuh nuh nuh-"

"That's quite enough, thank you." With that, Arthur slammed the door in their faces.

*****

Friday evenings were Arthur's favourite time of the week. He liked them because he'd finished work for the week, and because he had the next two days completely to himself. Except, when he finally flopped down onto the sofa to catch up with the Rugby matches he'd missed, the I've-got-time-to-do-what-I-want mood was completely shattered when Merlin chose to turn on some very loud Christmas songs, and attempt to deafen everybody within a two mile radius as he sang along to "Stop the Cavalry".

"_Merlin!_" Arthur wasn't surprised that Merlin didn't respond. Nothing short of the roof cave in was going to get his attention. So, feeling too lazy to get up and turn down the music himself, Arthur simply turned up the volume on the TV. Even at almost full blast, he could only just hear the mumbling of the commentators. Despite "not hearing" him a moment ago, Merlin seemed to notice the increase in the volume of the sport, and childishly turned up his music to ridiculously loud proportions.

_**So here it is merry Christmas, everybody's having fun!**_

Arthur let out a shout of frustration and angrily jabbed at the "off" button on the TV remote. Stomping into the kitchen, Merlin smiled innocently at him. The music was very suddenly cut off as Arthur practically tore the iPod out of its speakers.

"What?" Merlin asked, pretending to be confused. "I thought you liked this song?"

"Not anymore." Arthur ground out, glaring at Merlin across the counter.

"Oh, shame really. I love that song." Merlin grinned at him before returning to gleefully burning his dinner. Grumbling, Arthur stomped off upstairs.

*****

It wasn't until a few hours later, when Arthur had laid down long enough to get over the atrocity of his dinner, that he decided he was in the mood for listening to Christmas songs. With Merlin downstairs, busy being enthralled by the happenings of some ridiculous TV show, Arthur deemed it safe to roll off the bed, plug his iPod into the speakers and stick it on shuffle. Mouth pulled down into a frown, he stood and repeatedly tapped at the "next" button until he found a decent song. Smiling at the first Christmas song that appeared, Arthur bobbed his head along with the beat, before launching into a full-blown air-guitar rendition of Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody".

*****

As Strictly Come Dancing finished, Merlin switched off the TV, grabbed his mobile that he'd just been texting Gwen on, and began to make his way upstairs. As he neared the final step, he frowned. Was that a Christmas song he could hear? Arthur was listening to it _willingly? _And from the sounds of it, he was dancing too. This Merlin had to see…

*****

Oblivious to the slight opening of the door, Arthur added a head bang to his routine. Fighting back sniggers, Merlin pulled his phone out of his pocket and started up the camera.

As the chorus began, Arthur grabbed the nearest microphone-shaped object and proceeded to belt out Noddy Holder's scream of "It's Christmas!" into his toothbrush.

Before he could stop himself, Merlin let out a short bark of laughter. Arthur stopped dancing abruptly, and slowly turned around to face him. Merlin very quickly stowed his phone into his pocket before Arthur threw his toothbrush at Merlin's head, with a horrified cry of, "How long have you been stood there?!" At the look on Arthur's face, Merlin spluttered out a laugh before very quickly shutting the door and running for the safety of the kitchen.

*****

The first thing Arthur always did on a Saturday morning was crawl out from beneath the covers, flip open his laptop, and check his Facebook. Call it a habit, but Arthur couldn't help it. Normally, not much had happened. Someone commented on someone else's status, joined a group, or uploaded a photo, but nothing major.

However, on this particular Saturday morning, there was a strange amount of activity coming from Merlin's profile page. Puzzled, Arthur went to find out what he'd missed.

When he saw it, Arthur really wished he hadn't. He was faced with a very grainy, but unmistakable, video of himself prancing around his bedroom, singing into his toothbrush. Horrified, he scrolled down the page quickly; but not quick enough to avoid his cry of "It's Christmas!"

Arthur's horror deepened as he saw the sheer amount of comments. 289 in a few hours?! After several moments of hesitation, Arthur read the first few:

_**Morgana LeFay: **__Arthur's idiocy never ceases to amaze me. At least now we have something to publicly humiliate him with._

_**Gwen Collins: **__Wow. Is all I can say. And is that a toothbrush? Pure brilliance._

_**Owain Knightley: **__I lol'd. Really hard. This so going around work! Merlin, you are a legend._

_**Lancelot DuLac: **__Stunning performance! Do you think Arthur would be interested in a position on the dance team? I mean, they're all twelve-year-old girls, but I don't think they'd mind. :P_

_**Hunith Emrys: **__Wonderful! Especially the toothbrush part. Can I have a copy of this for the album? Love, Mum._

As Arthur slowly closed the lid of his laptop, he began to fear he would never ever hear the end of this.


	7. The Seventh Day

**The seventh installment! Woohoo! I've finally finished school now for the holiday, so hopefully I'll start uploading earlier in the day.**

**I still do not own anything to do with the Merlin series, it all belongs to the BBC.**

**Much love goes to my friend, Katy, for putting up with me while I uploaded this. c:**

**Enjoy!**

_

* * *

__On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, an abundance of tissues._

_* * * *_

It wasn't often that Arthur was ill. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he had been so ill he'd had to claim a sick day. He specifically took the doctor's advice and ate healthily, worked out religiously, and took the necessary supplements to keep himself going and fight off the cold. It would seem, however, that the last two flu-free years had come back to kick him in the balls all in one go. He was so ill, in fact, that Merlin had had to take the day off as well to look after him and make sure he didn't just drop dead. In his defence, Arthur had put up a very good fight, claiming man flu and "just a cold", and insisted he could actually go to work.

His argument has fallen flat, however, when he had been racked by such a strong cough that when he had attempted to push past Merlin and get out of bed, he didn't have the energy to hold himself up, and Merlin had had to catch him before he knocked himself out on the headboard.

The flu, Arthur decided, was horribly unfair.

* * * *

"Well, I don't know Gwen. You're the nurse. What do I do?" Arthur woke slowly to teh hushed tone that he assumed was Merlin talking, but he wasn't sure as the voice was strangely distorted by ears that really needed to pop and by a headache so bad, Arthur suspected he had been smashed over the head with a sledge hammer.

"Just soup? Really? Aren't there any magical miracle drugs that will cure him?" The Merlin-like-voice continued, before pausing. _Ah, _Arthur realised, _he's on the phone_. "No, I'm a _vet, _Gwen, Guinea Pigs don't usually get the flu, so I wouldn't know!" The Merlin-like-voice increased in volume and Arthur winced. _How inconsiderate. Doesn't he know that some people are trying to sleep? There's no need to shout. Idiot._

"Merlin. " He rasped, momentarily shocked by how dry his throat was.

"Hang on Gwen, he's woken up. I've gotta go." He paused again. "Soup, yes. Vegetable. Okay. Thanks."

"_Merlin_!" Arthur tried again, slowly becoming impatient.

"Yes, love? How are you feeling?" Arthur let out a small sigh of relief as Merlin placed a cold hand on his burning forehead.

"How do you think I'm feeling?"

"Good point." Arthur faintly heard the Merlin-like-voice chuckle. The cool hand pulled away, and Arthur let out a small (manly) whine as the burning feeling crept back across his forehead. "I was just talking to Gwen, and she told me to make you soup, that that you need to get as much sleeps as possible, okay?" Clearly expecting at least a grunt in answer, Merlin waited. And waited. Listening closely, he laughed softly. Arthur was already asleep.

* * * * *

Merlin knew that his cooking skills weren't the best, but he didn't think they were bad enough that Arthur felt the need to look nauseous every time he ate anything Merlin had made. Besides, Arthur's cooking skills weren't much better than his. At the thought of Arthur, Merlin sighed, slowly stirring his soup. It wasn't often that Arthur got ill, unlike Merlin, who always seemed to be plagued by a cold, but it seemed that whenever Arthur caught something, he caught it bad.

Humming softly to himself, Merlin snapped a stalk of celery in half and simply dropped both parts into the pan of steaming soup. After carefully rinsing a handful of broccoli florets, Merlin tore off the stalks and threw them away, knowing from experience that Arthur strongly disliked them. He frowned as the rest of the broccoli florets just fell apart and sank to the bottom. _Oh well, _he thought, _He's ill. He won't notice._

* * * * *

Arthur noticed. If the way he spat the spoonful of soup Merlin had carefully fed him in a spray across the bed was anything to go by. " What the hell is in that?!" Arthur attempted to sound angry, but merely managed to sound like an unhappy kitten as his throat failed him.

"Vegetables."

"_What _vegetables?"

"Erm... Celery, broccoli, cabbage, potato and carrot." Merlin scowled at him. "It's good for you. Now eat it." He held up another spoonful for him. Arthur stared at it, eyes fixed on the tendril of cabbage the hung over the edge, dripping onto the bed covers. A wave of nausea washed over him.

"I'm not hungry anymore."

Merlin let the spoon land in the bowl with a clatter and sighed.

"Get some sleep, love." Merlin gently pushed the damp hair away from Arthur's eyes, and pressed a kiss to his forehead. As bad as his cooking was, Arthur had to admit that Merlin made up for it with how much he cared.

* * * * *

After several hours of troubled sleep, plagued with waking up every half an hour, Arthur decided he was well enough to stumble down the stairs and get his fix of caffeine. He felt sick to his stomach at the mere thought of the taste of coffee, but his brain had been demanding caffeine for some time now.

As he almost fell down the last few steps, Merlin looked up from his paperwork he had spread over the coffee table.

"Arthur! What are you doing out of bed?" He stood up quickly, stepping forward to usher Arthur back upstairs. Arthur, however, was having none of it. Eyes wide, he stared at what he assumed was his living room. There was paperwork _everywhere_, all over the floor, the coffee table, and the sofa; an unhealthy amount of mugs were imprinting circular tea stains on what looked like important forms, and a half eaten box of Chinese food teetered dangerously on the arm of the sofa.

"What have you done to my _house_?"

Despite Arthur being worn-down by illness, Merlin very soon found out that he was very efficient at giving orders, and guilt tripping Merlin into flowing them.

"That food – bin. Now. Mugs in the dishwasher – all of them! _You forgot one! _" Arthur lean heavily on the doorframe, exhausted by his journey downstairs. "Do you not understand the meaning of the word 'filing'? No, don't answer that. Clearly you don't." As Merlin began his unplanned clean up, Arthur slowly migrated to the sofa.

"I just tidied those cushions!"

"Well, you can tidy them again later." Merlin stomped off into the kitchen, trying to balance mugs and his unfinished dinner without dropping anything. After several moments of unnecessarily loud washing up, Merlin stood in the doorway, drying his hands slowly.

"Anything else, _sire_?"

"You couldn't rub my feet for me, could you? Arthur smirked as Merlin's expression darkened.

"Prat."

"Idiot."


	8. The Eighth Day

**Woohoo! Eight segment!**

**I do not own anything to do with Merlin, it all belongs to the BBC. I also do not own Hollister, or WH Smith, or Michael McIntyre, or Jamie Oliver's book. c:**

**With thanks to my friend Katy for helping me to write this part! :33**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, unnecessary stress._

*****

As Arthur had stolen his Christmas present before he'd had a chance to give it to him, Merlin found himself experiencing the pain of Christmas shopping. _Again._

He'd managed to convince Arthur that he was shopping for food, and _he really didn't need to come with him. _As he trudged through the built up snow outside the shopping centre, Merlin attempted to come up with a new hiding place, as his underwear drawer didn't seem to have worked very well.

Stepping into the embracing warmth of the shopping centre, Merlin sighed. _Here we go again…_

*****

What he didn't know, though, was that as soon as he had pulled off the drive, Arthur had flung himself off the sofa, run to his own car, and driven (unknowingly) to the exact same shopping centre Merlin had just walked into.

As he paused at the traffic lights Arthur plugged his Blackberry into the hands-free dock and done an Internet search for tickets to the Strictly Come Dancing tour. However, when he saw how much he was expected to pay for such a gift, he snorted and abandoned the search. Maybe not…

*****

Merlin had previously thought that it had been almost too good to be true when he had known _exactly _what to buy Arthur for Christmas, and now that he looked back on it, it really had been.

He stared at the large display of colourful mugs in front of him. As his eyes flicked from mug to mug, they landed on one right at the back. He stepped closer to the glass window in an attempt to get a better look at it; it was bright orange, with "Top Babe" emblazoned across it in yellow, and the inside painted a bright green. Merlin snorted – something else to fuel Arthur's ego. He stepped into the shop, pulling out his wallet.

*****

As soon as he walked into the centre, Arthur made a beeline for the Hollister ship. Although Merlin had refused to even step over the threshold, Arthur decided it was about time he got at least a little dress sense, and set to choosing a hoodie for him.

Taking Merlin's favourite colour (blue) and his own favourite colour (red) into account, Arthur narrowed down his choices to three – red, blue, and black. He considered the three hoodies with a serious expression – on the one hand, red was Arthur's favourite colour and whenever Merlin wore it, it gave Arthur a sense of pride and ownership, however, Merlin thought that red was just too bright for him. On the other hand, blue was Merlin's favourite colour, and Arthur felt that it brought out the colour of Merlin's eyes, and so insisted he wore it often; except, blue wasn't Arthur's favourite colour, so Arthur cancelled out that choice. Now, with black, Merlin could wear it with anything and not have to worry about clashing colours, but if Merlin decided to wear it with those nice, tight black jeans that he had, he ran the risk of looking like a bit of an emo. And that wasn't good. After cancelling out that choice too, it left Arthur with the red, which he had thought was the best choice all along, for you could never go wrong with red.

As for the size, Arthur had already decided that he would buy _his _size, just in case of emergencies when Arthur had nothing else to wear. _Perfect, _he thought, and pulled the chosen hoodie off the shelf. Arthur had long since worked out how to remove one item from the shelf without pulling off all the others, so he was soon on his way. He had plans to finish shopping and get home before Merlin; which gave him approximately an hour. _Best get moving._

*****

After fighting through crowds of people who all seemed to be going in the opposite direction to him, Merlin headed to WH Smith, with the intention of buying some kind of DVD to go with Arthur's mug.

Smoothly avoiding the salesmen trying to sell him cheap energy, Merlin sped off to the back of the store. He already had an idea of what DVD to purchase – some kind of comedy. Michael McIntyre, maybe.

*****

Arthur hadn't been lucky enough to be able to avoid the salesmen. He wasted five minutes of his times, politely refusing the offer of "green energy", while at the same time, he was slowly edging away. The salesman seemed to get the message, and let out a very sulky sigh, before waving Arthur away.

As soon as he was free, Arthur sped off toward the book section, intending to find Merlin some kind of "cooking for idiots" manual. What he hadn't intended to do was have to suddenly leap into the nearest aisle, and duck down behind it. Peering around the corner, Arthur swore under his breath, he would recognize those ears _anywhere._

"Erm, are you lost, sir?"

Arthur looked up quickly, staring at the perplexed shop assistant. She gestured to the items covering the shelves Arthur was currently stooped behind. Casting a glance at them, Arthur felt his face redden. It would seem to an onlooker that he was browsing through women's health magazines.

"I'm not… I don't-" Arthur floundered for a believable explanation. "I'm hiding. From my boyfriend. I'm Christmas shopping for him." The assistant raised an eyebrow at him. "Not that he likes women's health magazines!"

"Of course. Well, erm, Merry Christmas, sir." Horrified, Arthur simply stood and watched her go.

*****

Not everything went horribly wrong, however. Arthur managed to get home well before Merlin, and after ten minutes of searching for something at least resembling wrapping paper, he managed to wrap the two presents he had bought. After much deliberation, he had chosen Jamie Oliver's "Anyone can learn to cook in 24 hours", in the hopes that Merlin didn't take it as a joke, and actually read it. He didn't that his poor stomach could take anymore charred beans on toast.

Arthur had just stuck the present underneath the tree when Merlin came crashing into the house.

"Back so soon?" He asked, trying to make it look like he had in fact been there for the entire time.

"Er, yeah."

"I thought you said you were going food shopping? I don't recall WH Smith announcing they now sell food." Arthur gestured to the blue and white bag Merlin was clutching in his hand.

"Oh. Um, the traffic was terrible, so I didn't get food. You'll have to go in the week."

"Me? But it's your turn!" Arthur huffed. "So, what did you buy?"

"Nothing!" Merlin cried, pulling his bags out of Arthur's reach.

"It doesn't sound like nothing…" Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Go on, let me see?"

"No!" Merlin looked flustered for a moment. "I… am tired." He nodded, as if to help convince himself that he was in fact telling the truth. "I'm gonna go lie down." He quickly tuned away and ran up the stairs, leaving a very smug Arthur standing in the hallway.

"That'll be for me then."


	9. The Ninth Day

**Only five days 'till christmas! Woohoo! Here's the next segment for you all. c:**

**I still do not own anything to do with the Merlin series, as it still belongs to the BBC. This segment assumes that Lancelot and Gwen are a couple. (:**

**Enjoy!**

_

* * *

_

_On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, hopelessly cheesy nativities._

*****

Merlin knew that Lancelot practically ran the village community centre, organised charity events, and spent most of his free time coaching the local dancing team. What he didn't know about Lancelot was that he also ran the yearly nativity that the village primary school put on before the end of the Christmas term. What he also didn't know was that Lancelot had signed both Merlin and Arthur up for helping out backstage.

He only discovered this fact when Lancelot turned up at their front door one evening. Arthur was spending a ridiculously long amount of time in the shower, so Merlin had no choice but to abandon his present wrapping and answer the persistent ringing of the doorbell.

"Alright, I'm coming! Sheesh." Merlin's anger quickly disappeared when he saw who was stood outside. "Lancelot! You never said you were dropping by! Come on in!"

"Thanks, Merlin." Lancelot quickly stepped inside, grateful to be out of the persistent snow. "I can't stay long, mind, got to get back to the performance."

"Ah, yes. How's that going, by the way? Gwen tells me you're doing your final dress rehearsal tomorrow?"

"Brilliantly, thanks! Yes, about that," Lancelot paused, as if searching for the right words. "I promised the other volunteers that you and Arthur would help out backstage. Arthur with the lights, and you with the props." Lancelot tensed his shoulders, as if waiting to be shouted at.

"Oh. Alright then. What time do you want us there tomorrow?"

Lancelot's face brightened instantly. "You're willing to help out?" At Merlin's nod, he let out a sigh of relief. "I honestly thought you'd be angry. Thank God for that..."

*****

After only half an hour of trying to persuade a group of boys that the Shepherd's crooks were not swords, and were in fact for walking with, not for knocking each other out with, Merlin came to the conclusion that helping out hadn't been such a good idea and that he harboured a strong dislike for the community's children. Children, he decided, were far too exhausting, and when they had been fed large amounts of sugar, they were near uncontrollable.

Arthur however, was having a much better time than Merlin, as Lancelot had allocated him the role of lead light co-ordinator. Which basically meant that he didn't do much except tell other people what to do. And for Arthur's job, there were absolutely no children involved whatsoever.

As Lancelot called for a break, Merlin let out what started as a sigh of relief, but finished as a sigh of frustration. As they'd been summoned for more sugar, all the children had simply dropped whatever they had been holding and left Merlin to tidy everything up. Arthur watched in amusement as Merlin muttered angrily under his breath and began to pick up stuffed sheep, shepherd crooks and a doll which he assumed was meant to be baby Jesus.

"Having fun, Merlin?"

"No, I am not." He spat out as the shepherd crooks he had just carefully lined up all toppled over again. "Does it really look like I'm having fun?" He gestured angrily at the once organised stage.

"Well, you were the one who agreed to it." Arthur pointed out, bending down to put Baby Jesus' crib back on its feet.

"I couldn't exactly say no, could I? He looked so desperate!"

Arthur shrugged. "At least it'll all be over tonight."

"There is that." After running a hand through his hair, Merlin surveyed his handiwork. The stage now at least resembled a barn. As it was the final dress rehearsal, the performance was that evening. Almost as soon as Merlin had stepped off the stage to retrieve a cup of tea from a smiling Gwen, Lancelot announced that the break was over, and the crowd of children ran screaming onto the stage, grabbing their props from before. Merlin sighed, taking a gulp of tea. _Here we go again..._

*****

"Alright guys, give yourselves a great big pat on the back, because today's rehearsal was excellent! Before you come back in later, make sure you've all eaten something, 'cause there'll be no breaks in between, okay?" Lancelot stood in front of the stage, beaming wildly at the group of children. "Leave your props with Merlin, and try not to get your costumes dirty on the way home!" As he clapped his hands together, all the children attempted to leave the stage at the same time, all trying to give Merlin their props.

"One at a time, guys, one at a time!" He cried desperately, as a small sheep got flung at his face. At this, the children merely dropped their props at his side and ran off outside, squealing about the snow. As Merlin began to tidy away the props _again_, Lancelot appeared at his side.

"I just wanted to thank you, Merlin. You've helped me out a lot here. I know they can be a handful, but it's definitely worth it when you see the finished thing, trust me." He clapped him on the shoulder briefly, before going to join Gwen and help to set up the raffle. Merlin snorted in disbelief.

"You don't believe him?" Arthur asked, before handing Merlin a much-earned cup of tea. Scowling, Merlin nursed it between his hands.

"I highly doubt that rabble of kids can contain themselves long enough to actually belt out a line in the right place." He paused to take a sip of his drink. "If they can, I will eat my hat." He gestured at the beanie he had put on earlier in an attempt to fight off the cold of backstage.

"I'll hold you to that."

*****

Later that night, as Merlin finally plonked himself down onto a seat in the kitchen, he stretched out his shoulders. Strangely, Arthur had offered to make dinner that night, and feeling too tired to be suspicious, Merlin had stupidly accepted. He had forgotten completely about the conversation he had had with Arthur earlier.

"The performance was good, wasn't it?" Arthur asked innocently, bustling about in the fridge.

"Mm." Merlin had been extremely shocked to find that during the actual performance, the children had managed to hold themselves back and put on an extremely professional-looking play. Lancelot had been ecstatic at how well it had gone, and Arthur had looked oddly smug. He watched as Arthur rummaged in the cupboard for two plates, cursing as he bashed the back of his head on the lip of the counter as he straightened up.

"It's not much, I'm afraid," Arthur face was innocently straight as he placed a knife and forward in front of Merlin. "It was the best I could do at short notice."

"I'm sure it's fine, whatever it is." Merlin frowned as Arthur snorted. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing." He turned away again, grabbing the two plates off the counter and placing one in front of Merlin. As if nothing were wrong, Arthur began to spear pasta onto his fork and chew at it slowly. Merlin picked up his fork, and was about to stab at his own pasta, when he noticed that there was in fact, no pasta on his plate. In its place, lay his beanie hat, carefully placed on a bed of lettuce. Arthur grinned widely at him, barely holding back his laughter.

Merlin groaned, letting his face fall into his palm. "I hate you, you know?"

Arthur pushed the plate toward him. "I'm sure you do. Now, eat up, that took me ages to make."


	10. The Tenth Day

**Tenth installment! Whoop! I apologise for the short-ness today - what with the ice and snow and everything, things have been pretty mad. (:**

**I do not own anything to do with the Merlin series, as it still belongs to the BBC. (:**

**Enjoy!**

_

* * *

_

_On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, far too much food._

*****

"You know, cookies really aren't that hard to make, Arthur, my love." Hunith gently pointed out, as she briskly stirred a bowl of cookie mix. She slapped the back of his hand with the wooden spoon as he attempted to stick his finger into the bowl and steal some. "You'll get salmonella!" She scolded. Arthur frowned, but proceeded to lick the mix off his hand. She tutted, but said nothing else.

After spending several hours attempting to make something that at least resembled a cookie, Merlin had given up completely and called his mother to ask for some advice. Instead of telling him over the phone, she had insisted that she came over and made them something decent, rather than have them make themselves ill with their own failed attempts. They had both very quickly accepted the offer.

"Here, you stir it." Hunith handed a very reluctant Arthur the spoon, and gestured for him to begin. "Stop being so gentle," She encouraged. "Brisk. _Brisk!_"

"I'm being brisk!"

"Be brisker, then!"

Merlin stood in the doorway, smiling as Hunith huffed and took the spoon back off Arthur. "We'll be here all day at this rate!"

"Having problems, Arthur?" Merlin couldn't help but laugh at Arthur's frustrated expression.

"No! Why am I doing all the work, while you're just stood there?" Arthur looked to Hunith for back-up. She nodded, thrusting the spoon back at Arthur before placing her hands on her hips.

"I was working!"

"Well, you've finished now." Hunith turned to her son. "Come do the washing up for me." She waved her hand in the direction of the sink, and the large mountain of bowls and spoons that had built up over the afternoon.

"But _Mum- _"Merlin began, but he was quickly silence when Hunith glared at him. "Why can't I do the stirring, and Arthur do the washing up? I wasn't even _here._"

"Stop complaining, Merlin." At his hurt expression, Hunith's stance softened. "If you do the washing up for me, you can ice the cookies. Okay?" She smiled as Merlin's face brightened. Arthur, however, was not pleased with this decision.

"Why does he get to ice the cookies?"

Hunith rolled her eyes. "Honestly, boys, how old are you? Five?" Arthur scowled at her, abandoning the spoon in the bowl. He ignored it as it started to slip away from the edge and into the mix. "How about you can each ice half of them?"

"Fine."

*****

25 minutes later, both Merlin and Arthur were stooped in front of the oven, waiting for the timer to go off and allow them to retrieve the cookies. Hunith shook her head at them, smiling faintly, as she mixed up a bowl of icing. She watched them both tense up as the timer flicked to "30 seconds", silently waiting, until the timer binged loudly, and they both burst into action. As Merlin wrenched open the oven door so quickly he almost tore it off its hinges, Arthur thrust a gloved hand into the oven, quickly pulled the tray of cookies out, and then shook them on to the cooling rack.

Grinning, they both turned to Hunith. "Now what?"

"Now, you come and ice these cookies." She pulled a box of cookie decorations from her bag of supplies, and handed them to Arthur. "I'll be in the living room if you need me, okay?"

As soon as she left the kitchen, they both leapt at the box, fighting for the red and green decorations. Merlin held up the red decorations in triumph, as Arthur held up the green. Merlin looked at the red in dismay. "Swap?" He pleaded, offering his decorations to Arthur. Arthur nodded, but as Merlin reached for the green, Arthur snatched the red off him, and held them both out of reach.

"Arthur! That is so not fair!"

Arthur merely poked his tongue out at him and began to ice his star-shaped cookie. Merlin huffed, and turned to the remaining decorations. He glared at the yellow and blue sprinkles, but with little choice, he pulled them out and set to working out what he would do.

*****

After Merlin finally managed to wrestle at least the green decorations of Arthur (he had been strangely protective of the red), he began to decorate his final gingerbread man. He'd been very careful with them – giving them all unique faces and lovingly applied buttons and icing gloves. Just as he was about to add the buttons, he remembered about the batch of cookies they had removed from the oven not ten minutes before.

He turned away from his beloved gingerbread man for a moment to check that the cookies had cooled enough to be decorated. As soon as his attention was elsewhere, Arthur shimmied around the counter, and finished the decorating for him.

*****

"Now, try not to each too much unhealthy food over the holidays, won't you, boys?"

"We'll give it a go, Mum." Hunith hugged her son goodbye, as Arthur appeared on the doorstep after taking her bags to her car. It would seem the snow had picked up again as Arthur's black jacket was littered with white flakes.

"I'll see you in the New Year, okay?" They both nodded, and stood in the doorway to wave her off. As soon as she had driven out of sight, Merlin turned to Arthur.

"Right. Fancy a cookie?" With that said, Merlin sped off to put the kettle on and fetch himself a gingerbread man. Humming softly to himself, he opened the tub, expecting to find himself a nice, appealing cookie. What he wasn't expecting was to find one of his beloved gingerbread grinning up at him, face obscured with a blotchy moustache and overly large glasses.

"Arthur!"


	11. The Eleventh Day

**The penultimate update! *Sniffles* I'm kinda of sad that it's almost over. ): **

**Somehow, the 12 days of Christmas have got a bit mixed up, so rather than finishing on the 24th, have somehow worked out to finished on the 23rd, so I changed the timeline a bit, so the 11th Day of Christmas is officially Christmas Eve, M'kay? c:**

**I still don't own any part of the Merlin series. It all belongs to the BBC.**

**I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. (:**

* * *

_On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, Christmas cheer and good-will._

*****

Merlin knew that Arthur was obsessed with eating healthily and working out and looking after himself; but he also knew hat Arthur's guilty pleasure was chocolate chip cookies. Not the huge chocolate chip cookies you buy in batches of four, but those smaller ones that come in groups of about twenty – Merlin could never remember the brand name.

So this was why, during their last food shop before Christmas, Merlin had picked up several of the packets, purely for Arthur's consumption. He had completely ignored Arthur's previous instruction to not buy anything unhealthy under any circumstances. Looking down at the contents of his trolley, Merlin smiled to himself – Arthur would not be pleased with the large amounts of biscuits and chocolate and salted peanuts he had gathered. _Ah well, _he thought, _It's Christmas._

*****

"What is this, Merlin?" Arthur rummaged through the bags of shopping Merlin had brought in from the car. "I thought I said not to buy anything unhealthy?"

"But it's _Christmas, _Arthur. It's almost law that you have to eat unhealthily at Christmas.

"What? It's not law, Merlin."

"I said _almost _law, Arthur. It's like an unwritten code."

"Maybe for you, but I don't plan on gaining 5lbs this year, thank you very much."

"So you won't eat any of it?" Merlin asked, before sticking a hand in one of the bags, seemingly searching for something.

"No."

"Not even these?" Merlin held up a packet of Arthur's favourite cookies, grinning.

Arthur seemed unsure for a moment, his face twisted into a frown. "Well, maybe just one…" He took the packet from Merlin, instantly tearing open the wrapper. His face lit up with a smile as he took his first bite. "Perfect."

*****

Merlin loved Christmas. Not because of the presents, or the food, or anything like that, but because of the _feel _of Christmas. He loved the general feeling of good cheer that everyone seemed to experience at this time of year, and the way that everyone came together. He particularly loved the part of Christmas "law" that demanded you at least speak to every single relative on both sides of your family, and wish every person you speak to (friend or not) a very merry Christmas.

He loved to spend time with Arthur when neither of them had to work, and could spend an entire day flopped in front of the TV, and not have to feel guilty about not doing anything. He loved the way every channel had a countdown to Christmas day in the corner of their screens, and how they only seemed to play films that were based around giving and good-will and Christmas cheer.

As a member of the Emrys family, Merlin had been subjected to the family tradition of putting out cookies and mil for "Santa" every single year, even when he was too old to believe in men dressed in red coming down the chimney to give him presents.

So it should have been nothing new to Arthur that Merlin's family had traditions that had to be followed, no matter what. Arthur, however, was still incredibly confused when he saw Merlin carefully pouring a glass of milk and placing several of _Arthur's _cookies onto a plate.

"Merlin, dare I ask, what are you doing?"

"Putting out cookies and milk. What does it look like?" Swallowing the piece of cookie Merlin had nabbed in the process, he stepped around a very puzzled Arthur and made his way to the fireplace.

"I hate to break it to you, Merlin, but Santa's not real."

Merlin glared at him over his shoulder. "Yes, I know that, Arthur. I am not four years old."

Arthur frowned. "Well, why are you putting cookies and milk out then?"

"It's a family tradition." Merlin said simply, standing up slowly. "Don't eat that!" He cried, wrenching a cooking out of Arthur's hand. He re-placed it lovingly on the plate.

"Well, if they're not for Santa, why can't I eat it?"

"Because they're not for you!"

"You are an extremely strange person, Merlin Emrys."

*****

Despite being twenty-three now, Merlin could never get to sleep on Christmas Eve. He knew there was no man in a red coat placing presents under the tree while he slept, so he guessed it was just because he loved Christmas so much that he could never drift off to sleep until well after midnight.

As he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, Merlin could feel his heart beat quicken in excitement. _It's nearly Christmas! _His mind chanted, and a large grin spread across his face. He rolled over onto his side slowly, so as not to wake Arthur, with the intention of checking the clock on Arthur's bedside table. He was quite surprised to find that Arthur was not in bed. From the silence, Merlin knew that Arthur was not in the bathroom (Arthur's bathroom light buzzed terribly loudly everytime you turned it on), so he assumed that Arthur was downstairs.

Curious as to what was so interesting downstairs that required Arthur out of bed at ten to midnight, Merlin crept downstairs to find out.

He smiled softly as his eyes fell on Arthur. He was sat on the sofa, cookie in hand, just watching the Christmas tree The tree lights were the only source of light in the room, casting a faint glow on Arthur's blonde hair. Arthur looked up as Merlin stepped into the living room.

"Come here." Merlin took the offered hand, joining him on the sofa.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Arthur didn't complain as Merlin took the cookie from him and ate it himself.

"Family tradition." He snuggled up to Arthur's side as he put an arm around Merlin's shoulders. Merlin smiled as the clock hands flicked to midnight.

"Merry Christmas, Arthur."

"Merry Christmas, Merlin."


	12. The Twelfth Day

**The final installment! I just wanted to thank you all for the fantastic reviews you've given me during this series, and all the support you've shown me. (: I am extremely grateful! I got all teary-eyed writing this, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. (:**

**I do not own anything to do with the Merlin series - it all belongs to the BBC. I do not own Hollister; Michael McIntyre; Jamie Oliver; or Mario Kart. They all belong to their respective companies.**

**I hope you all have an amazing Christmas, and a wonderful New Year! (: xx**

* * *

_On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, Christmas crackers and good cheer._

*****

Arthur rolled out his shoulders slowly, wincing when they protested in pain. Falling asleep with Merlin, snuggled in front of the tree had been the perfect start to Christmas, but the obscure position hadn't been too kind of his joints. He yawned widely, reaching out to run a hand through Merlin's hair. He mumbled something unintelligible, slowly waking up.

Smiling, Arthur leant closer to Merlin's ear. "Merlin, it's Christmas." Merlin sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Did you say it was Christmas?" Merlin yawned, quickly slapping his hand over his mouth.

Arthur nodded, brushing a piece of stray hair out of Merlin's eyes. "Mmhmm." He chuckled as Merlin's face lit up with childish excitement.

"Well, what are we sat here for? There are presents to unwrap!" Just as Merlin was about to leap off the sofa, Arthur caught him with an around his waist. Merlin whined in disappointment.

"_Arthur!_"

"Isn't there some Christmas law, or something, that says you can't open presents until Arthur has actually had a chance to drink some coffee?" Merlin sat back on the sofa heavily.

"You sound just like my Mother."

*****

Merlin was unimpressed. Not only had Arthur insisted on drinking an entire mug of coffee before he could go anywhere _near _the tree, but he had also insisted he be allowed to have a shower _and _get dressed beforehand.

So, in a childish attempt at revenge, when Arthur was finally ready to open presents, Merlin flounced off to go and have a _very _long shower and eat breakfast, knowing full well that Arthur would not be pleased.

It was well past 9AM when they both finally sat down in front of the tree, Arthur nursing another cup of coffee between his hands.

"Whose gonna go first?"

"You can, Merlin." Arthur handed Merlin the first gift he could see with Merlin's name on it. From the very boring brown paper, Arthur assumed it was from his father. Just as Merlin was about to wrench off the paper, Arthur tutted. "Open the card first!" Merlin let the package drop back onto his knees with a frustrated sigh. He wrestled with the envelope for a moment, before pulling out a tastefully simple Christmas card. Inside, it read:

_Merlin,_

_ Merry Christmas._

_ Uther._

Waving the open card in Arthur's face, Merlin asked, "Can I open the present _now?_"

"Yes." Arthur watched in amusement as Merlin first shook the present, and then squished it between his fingers.

"It's in a box!" Merlin cried, clearly unimpressed. "How am I supposed to guess what it is?"

"I think that's the idea, Merlin." Ignoring him, Merlin continued to rip off the paper, and open the flat box. Peering over, Arthur attempted to see what it was. Merlin slowly pulled out a red and gold scarf, with a small dragon stitched into one end. Stunned, Arthur sat back and watched as Merlin put it around his neck. "He gave you a Pendragon scarf." He said simply, lost for words.

"…Is it special?"

"The idea is that when a father in the Pendragon family approves of his child's partner, they give them something with the Pendragon crest on it."

Merlin blinked several times, looking from the scarf, to Arthur and back to the scarf again. Suddenly, he grinned widely. "You'll never get rid of me now!"

"Oh good God." Arthur laughed as Merlin tossed the balled-up wrapping paper at him. It missed, of course, but it was the thought that counted.

"Your turn!" Merlin picked up the small, rectangular present his mother had left for Arthur and handed it to him.

Unlike Merlin, Arthur did not feel the urge to shake the package or squash it, so he merely peeled off the paper, revealing a Wii game he had been intending to buy for a long time – Mario Kart. Laughing, he turned to Merlin. "We are so going on this later!"

"No way am I making a fool of myself on that!"

"Oh, come on, I'll let you win?"

"I do not need you to let me win! I can beat you on my own!"

"Oh yeah? I bet you £10 you can't!"

"You're on!"

Knowing already that that Merlin would fail miserably, Arthur turned back to the presents. They spent the next half an hour alternating opening them, until only the one's from each other remained. Before Arthur could even think about giving Merlin his, Merlin had thrust Arthur's in his face.

"Open mine first! But don't shake it." He warned, watching Arthur closely.

Arthur slowly opened the rectangular gift first, grinning broadly when he saw what it was. "'Michael McIntyre Live 2009'… You have good taste, Merlin." Merlin looked smug.

"I try. Now open the next one!" Just to annoy him, Arthur took his time peeling off the paper, earning him several agitated shouts of, "Hurry up, Arthur!" Frowning at the plain brown box, Arthur opened it, pulled out the mug, and began to laugh loudly.

"'Top Babe'? I'm glad you think so!| Arthur made a mental vow to use this mug all the time from then on. "Thank you." He leant in for a brief kiss, before handing Merlin his present. "Go on, open it."

Clearly deciding to be different, Merlin opened his present upside down, revealing the hoodie first. "Hollister? Really, Arthur?" Despite purely looking amused, Merlin pulled it over his head, maneuvering his scarf to a comfortable position. Merlin paused for a moment. "It's really soft." He admitted. "And it smells good…"

Arthur grinned at him, feeling incredibly proud of himself. "What did I tell you?"

"Alright, alright. No need to brag…" Merlin turned to the second part of the present. He frowned as a large picture of Jamie Oliver grinned up at him. "Everyone can learn to cook in 24 hours?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at Arthur. "Are you implying I have no culinary skills?"

"Of course not. Just that you maybe nee a bit of a refresher course to remind yourself the difference between something edible, and something that is burnt beyond recognition."

"You can make you own lunch today." Merlin shifted over so he was sat next to Arthur, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you."

*****

After several hours of failing dismally at Mario Kart, Merlin decided he had put off starting their Christmas Lunch long enough. Standing in the kitchen, Merlin put his hands on his hips. He had absolutely no idea what to do.

"Arthur," He called. "is there a recipe in that book for Christmas Lunch?" He waited patiently for a moment as he heard Arthur flick through the pages.

"No."

"Damn." Sighing, Merlin turned to the fridge. _Best get it over with…_

*****

As Merlin was crashing about in the kitchen so loudly, he did not hear the doorbell ring, or Arthur answer, and he definitely did not hear Arthur happily invite some people into the house. He only found out that it was not just him and Arthur anymore when he was ushered from the kitchen by his Mother and Gwen.

Utterly confused, Merlin turned to Arthur for answers. "You never said everyone was coming over – I would've hovered!" He hissed, smiling pleasantly at Lancelot.

"I didn't even know!" Arthur dashed off suddenly to answer the door after it rang again. From Arthur's pleased cry of, "Father!" and the sound of someone slapping someone else on the back, Merlin assumed that Uther had arrived. Checking to make sure his scarf was still around his neck, Merlin went out to greet him.

"Thank you so much for the scarf, Uther!" In response, Uther smiled and clapped a hand to Merlin's shoulder.

"My pleasure, Merlin." Glancing over his shoulder, Merlin noticed Arthur's extremely pleased expression and smiled. As they all made their way back into the living room, Lancelot held up Mario Kart, looking extremely excited.

"Up for a game, Arthur? Uther?"

*****

Merlin had almost forgotten how delicious his mother's cooking was when he had first sat down, but he was very quickly reminded of his mother's superior cooking skills. Hunith and Gwen seemed to have 'clicked' immediately, if the amazing food and their very smug expressions were anything to go by. Merlin swore that when the four men began to wolf down their lunch, he saw them share a high-five under the table.

"Merlin?" Lancelot gestured to the red and gold cracker (clearly supplied by Uther) in his hand. Grinning, Merlin pulled the other end of the cracker, whooping with joy when he won. He pulled out the paper hat from the remains, and seeing it was red, placed it on Arthur's head.

The room was very quickly filled with the bangs of crackers, shouts of joy as people won, and groans of frustration when people lost. Seeing his family and friends gathered together, laughing and having, he couldn't help but smile.

Christmas, Merlin decided, was his favourite time of year."


End file.
